Breastfeeding is the optimal form of feeding for the healthy term infant, yet the United States still lags well behind the Healthy People-2000 goal of 75% mothers breastfeeding at hospital discharge. In order to further explore appropriate times for educational intervention and the knowledge base of teenagers regarding various forms of infant feeding we conducted a cross-sectional study of the attitudes and knowledge of a group of high school students. An instrument was developed based upon our previous studies that included units relating to demographics (20 items), attitudes (41 items, three factors), and behavioral capability or knowledge (18 items). These latter two units have consistently correlated with maternal initiation of breastfeeding. Completed instruments were collected from 161 students (85 male, 76 female), 14-19 years old, in grades 9 to 12, including Anglo- (70), African- (58), and Hispanic-Americans (26). The respondents' sex and age were generally not associated with their attitudes or behavioral capability towards breastfeeding, however, Black-Americans scored low (3.6 vs 5.1 for Anglos and 5.5 for Hispanics, p=0.012) on this latter measure. Despite the high proportion (74%) that felt that breastfeeding was the best form of nutrition, only 33% would breastfeed their own infants. Their attitudes(table below) reflected high scores for benefits of breastfeeding (BF) and low scores for costs of formula feeding (FF) if they thought breastfeeding was best or if they would breastfeed in the future(*p<0.05). In conclusion this adolescent population has a very low knowledge base (mean score 5.2) compared to older women just having their first baby (10.1) and, thus, represents an excellent point of educational intervention as a component of their health training for programs designed to increase the rate of breastfeeding.
